Brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. You can see it, touch it, hold it, hear it, and watch it move. Brand identity fuels recognition amplifies differentiation and makes big ideas and meaning accessible. it takes disparate elements and unifies them into whole systems.
Designing a brand’s visual identity is divided into 3 phases:
How is the brand perceived & positioned? What’s your heritage? Who is your audience and with which values & beliefs do you enter the market?
How will you represent this brand visually? Once you have a logo, how will you translate it into various design pieces? What should your overall identity look like?
Has the audience, market, or your brand shifted? Is it time for a change?
This phase should be as thorough as needed, depending on the deep research and size of the company.
It’s the most crucial part of the overall process and should result in a design brief that guides the rest of the project. Below is a list of foundational questions to explore and document through qualitative.
As you can tell, it’s complicated. But It shows in the way that you describe your completed work as challenge and solution projects.
After the research phase is complete and a design brief has been created, it’s time to start designing the logo and identity system.
Lastly, after a new brand identity has launched, it is important to monitor and care for it, as it’s a living and breathing thing that interacts with your customers. Honestly, that’s a loaded statement as there are many ways to properly care for a brand. Regardless, over time, if your target audience shifts, the market evolves, or the brand’s products and services change, it may be time for a rebrand. The main challenge with rebranding is trying to maintain familiarity and consistency so that your customers will remember you.